brian posehn

The wackiest talent showcase (yes, wackier than America's Got Talent) is back with Comedy Central's The Gong Show. Hosted by Comedy Central veteran Dave Attell, The Gong Show will feature seven to ten bizarre acts each episode that will be judged by a rotating panel of celebrities. At the end of each show, the act with the highest score will be crowned the winner.

The premiere episode will be judged by Brian Posehn of Just Shoot Me, Steve Schirripa of The Sopranos, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Other judges include Adam Carolla of Drawn Together, Kate Walsh of Private Practice, Andy Dick of Less Than Perfect, Ron White, Dave Navarro, Greg Giraldo, Jim Norton, and JB Smoove of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Comedy Central usually puts together decent DVD packages for its shows, and this one is no exception. Well, it's decent if you're a fan of Silverman's goofy and self-absorbed songs, because this package features them quite a bit.

Some of us here are big fans of the Comedians of Comedy, a collection of various comedians (the core group consists of Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford, Eugene Mirman and Zach Galifianakis) who play small rock clubs and similar venues rather than the usual comedy clubs.

Patton Oswalt recently posted on the comedy site A Special Thing that a brand new DVD, The Comedians of Comedy: Live at the Troubadour, would be released on October 2. What's even cooler, or maybe just equally as cool, is that the entire concert will be shown on Comedy Central's Secret Stash, completely uncensored and uncut, on September 29.

After sitting through hours of spoilerific, carefully-calibrated marketing presentations, there's nothing quite as bracing as the inspired lunancy of Sarah Silverman and friends. The entire cast of The Sarah Silverman Program gathered at this year's Comic-Con to share clips from their second sesaon and a tape of Steve Agee masturbating, or as the moderator, comedian Zach Galifianakis, put it "alphabetizing his testicles." (He was alphabetizing for comedic purposes, of course.) Needless to say, it was an R-rated evening all around.

Harland Williams was the only funny thing about Monday night's episode of Thank God You're Here. And he was so damn funny that my abs got a workout as I laughed my way through his entire improved scene. Unlike the other players, who waited to see what the stage actors had planned for them, Harland walked into the scene and took control.

Harland got a little dirty near the end (improv ain't funny 'less it's dirty, folks) and NBC censored him several times. In fact, the very end of his scene had a joke completely edited out because the censors apparently couldn't make it fly by just bleeping him. Did anyone else find it interesting that the censors left in references to drugs, but edited out the sexual references?

The edited portion of his scene is in this video. And the uncensored version of another part of his scene is here. Both videos are also after the jump.

Below is a short film from 1999 called Hands, the story of Derrick "Hands" Wilson, a man whose amazing clapping ability made him one of the most sought after clappers in the music business -- at least until automation made his kind obsolete. The short features Mary Lynn Rajskub of 24 and Mr. Show and Brian Posehn of Mr. Show, Just Shoot Me and the Sarah Silverman Program. My advice to Wilson would have been to head to Nashville and start a new career as a knee slapper for popular country and western groups. Then again, maybe that's considered blasphemous in the world of professional hand clapping. As Wilson says in the movie, a clap is really just a paused prayer. Stir that around in your brain soup for awhile.

Anyway, check out the video, but make sure you watch it until the end, because that's the funniest part of the whole short.

Some of you may recognize comedian Brian Posehn from his role on Just Shoot Me, while others of us remember him from HBO's Mr. Show. Either way, he's a funny guy, and if you've seen even a little bit of his act you know the man loves himself some metal. The clip I placed after the jump is a music video based on his song "Metal by Numbers" from his new comedy album, Live In: Nerd Rage. His band is called Posehn and features Scott Ian of Anthrax, Joey Vera of Armored Saint, and John Tempesta of The Cult. The song itself is only so-so, and Posehn doesn't exactly stay on top of the beat, but damn it Jim, he's a comedian, not a singer. Besides, there are some funny moments sprinkled throughout the video, including a cameo by his old Mr. Show pal, Bob Odenkirk. Check it out:

(S04E06) Fans of Reno 911! know there's been a running gag since the first season in which Dangle always has his bike stolen from him in broad daylight, even when he tries to lock it to something. In the opening scene of this episode he thinks he's found a fool-proof way to catch the person that keeps swiping his bike: he uses a special mirror to hide behind a building and peer out at his bike. Unfortunately, just as he gets the mirror adjusted somebody zips by on his bike and grabs the mirror.

After the opening credits we get into the real meat of the episode, which begins with Sheriff Chechekevitch being hauled into an ambulance and telling Dangle to avenge his death. Chechekevitch also appeared in season two during a three-episode story arc when Jones and Garcia were being charged with murdering a man dressed as a milkshake. The deputies all love him, at least, they think he was pretty good for a Polish sheriff. Really, they've had better sheriffs.

Yet another failed pilot ends up on YouTube. Last time, it was Nobody's Watching and it was actually pretty good. This time? Not so much. It's Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn in Super Nerds. While the script has some good lines, Oswalt and Posehn just suck the life out of the show with their inability to act. Or, maybe it's supposed to suck? Anyway, it also features Sarah Silverman.

Comedy clubs tend to be parodies of themselves, a place where mediocre comics trot out the same tired gags while the
audience, semi-drunk on watered down cocktails, laughs and claps along. It's a great place to perform if your act
involves impressions of celebrities or a trunk full of ventriloquist dummies, but if you're looking for an audience
that really wants to be challenged, they won't be hanging out at PJ Laughenheimer's Giggle Hut.